Having happily returned from celebrating a friends milestone birthday at a gorgeous, rustic villa in Nerja on the coast of southern Spain, I am thrilled to share this recipe for a Spanish tapas dish that has imprinted itself on just about every restaurant menu in the Costa del Sol region – Gambas al Pil Pil.

This dish is a sizzling combination of shrimp, olive oil, garlic, paprika, parsley, sea salt, chili peppers and sometimes lemon and is served in an earthenware pan that keeps it hot for about one half hour. This classic dish is super simple to prepare and absolutely delicious. We pretty much had Gambas al Pil Pil daily and I noticed variations from restaurant to restaurant. In some the sauces were strained and smooth, others served it chunky. I prefer the latter. One restaurant in Salobrena cooked the shrimp to perfection but missed it on the sauce. The local joint at the bottom of the mountain where our villa was has a wonderful sauce but the shrimp is consistently overcooked. Either way, overcooked shrimp or not, it’s a craver!

I picked up a sachet of the traditional spice blend to try at home.

In Spain the shrimp look like about 21-25 in size but here I am using 16 – 20’s. Enjoy!